Applications open for the U.S. Department of Labor's Scholars Program

[News]

February 26, 2018

Applications are due April 06, 2018.

Immigration in American Economic History

By Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan

Journal of Economic Literature, December 2017

The United States has long been perceived as a land of opportunity for immigrants. Yet, both in the past and today, US natives have expressed concern that immigrants fail to integrate into US society and lower wages for existing workers. This paper review...

Process of assimilation

[Research Highlight]

February 21, 2018

An interview with Leah Boustan about immigrant earnings, assimilation, and policy

Party schools and sexual assault

[Research Highlight]

January 22, 2018

An interview with Isaac Swensen about college football, excessive drinking, and threats against women on campus.

The Wall Street Journal features AEJ: Applied article on sexual assault

[News]

March 07, 2018

The paper analyzed the correlation between college football game days and increased reports of rape on campus.

Encouraging energy conservation

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How effective are appeals to morality versus economic incentives?

Learning to cheat

[Research Highlight]

February 12, 2018

A high school program designed to promote learning incentivized cheating as well.

Markets and Manipulation: Time for a Paradigm Shift?

By Kaushik Basu

Journal of Economic Literature, March 2018

There is a growing appreciation in economics that people have emotional vulnerabilities, commitments to social norms, and systematic irrationalities that impact their decision making and choice in the market place. The flip side of this is that human bein...

Policy Watch: Challenges for Terrorism Risk Insurance in the United States

By Howard Kunreuther and Erwann Michel-Kerjan

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

This paper examines the role that insurance has played in dealing with terrorism before and after September 11, 2001, by focusing on the distinctive challenges associated with terrorism as a catastrophic risk. The Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRI...

Comment on the AEA Code of Professional Conduct and Interim Report

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"Sand castles before the tide"

[Research Highlight]

February 16, 2018

How can America's most expensive cities keep themselves affordable?

Do Restrictions on Home Equity Extraction Contribute to Lower Mortgage Defaults? Evidence from a Policy Discontinuity at the Texas Border

By Anil Kumar

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, February 2018

Texas is the only US state that limits home equity borrowing to 80 percent of home value. This paper exploits this policy discontinuity around Texas' interstate borders and uses a multidimensional regression discontinuity design framework to find that lim...

Protecting homeowners from themselves

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Could restricting home equity extraction lower the risk of mortgage default?

Urban Sprawl

By Thomas J. Nechyba and Randall P. Walsh

Journal of Economic Perspectives, Fall 2004

We begin with an overview of the causes and consequences of urban sprawl in the twentieth century, focusing in particular on lower transportation costs and self-sorting of the population. By sprawl, we will mean the tendency toward lower city densities as...

The "Pupil" Factory: Specialization and the Production of Human Capital in Schools

By Roland G. Fryer Jr.

American Economic Review, March 2018

I conducted a randomized field experiment in traditional public elementary schools in Houston, Texas designed to test the potential productivity benefits of teacher specialization. The average impact of encouraging schools to specialize their teachers on ...

Cite your sources

[Research Highlight]

February 14, 2018

What can economists’ citations tell us about the field?

Coarse Grades

[Research Highlight]

March 15, 2018

Crude measures of quality are sometimes better for consumers.

2018 ASSA Registrants Survey

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2017/2018 JOE Candidate Survey

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2017/2018 JOE Employer Survey

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